Setback For Moray Windfarm Plans
A planning application for a 12-turbine windfarm in Moray is being recommended for refusal.
A planning application for a 12-turbine windfarm in Moray is being recommended for refusal.
More than 1300 people have lodged objections with Moray Council to the proposed development at Brown Muir, midway between Fogwatt and Rothes.
By contrast the proposal has generated 20 representations in support.
The application will be considered at a special meeting of the council’s planning and regulatory services committee next Tuesday.
A report to members says that national policy is generally supportive of renewable energy development and a reduction in the number of turbines compared to an earlier application had reduced the scale of the proposed development, with turbines removed from the highest parts of Brown Muir.
However, the benefits of the proposal were not considered to outweigh the ‘unacceptable significant adverse landscape and visual effects.’
The report concludes: “Policy may indicate support for a development which contributes towards the transition to a low carbon economy, but it requires the quality of the natural and built environment to be safeguarded.
“This would not be achieved here in terms of the number, height and siting of the turbines and the resultant unacceptable and significant adverse landscape and visual impacts to Brown Muir and the surrounding locality.”